Rockin' Wedding Tunes

Michelle L. Quinn

Tuesday

May 27, 2008 at 12:01 AMMay 27, 2008 at 4:03 PM

When BravoTV Reality personality Ben Mollin and his wife, Ann Bower-Mollin, threw their wedding reception in late March, there was no question as to how they would handle the music: Ben’s band would do the heavy lifting, and his iPod filled in the downtime.

When BravoTV Reality personality Ben Mollin and his wife, Ann Bower-Mollin, threw their wedding reception in late March, there was no question as to how they would handle the music: Ben’s band would do the heavy lifting, and his iPod filled in the downtime.

A self-proclaimed “huge geek” when it comes to music, the decision to use his iPod was simple, he said. Mollin, 32, belongs to an online music service, so he was able to pick from 5 million songs to come up with the perfect mix of 1970s “booty shaking” music. His band, meanwhile, had all the necessary sound equipment to make everything sound fantastic.

“The sound equipment’s key in everything you do,” Mollin said. “If you have only speaker, the music’s going to sound really lame.”
When deciding whether you’re going to use a deejay, hire a band or just hook up your mP3 player, you’ll need to examine a few things before solidifying your choice.

Cost

Your mP3 player’s the cheapest route to go, even if you subscribe to an online music service such as Rhapsody at $14.95 a month.

A good band, on the other hand, will start around $2,000, and a deejay around $800.

Space

Let’s face it – from lights to soundboards, bands and deejays have a lot of equipment, and if you’re in a small venue, that can be an issue.

Variety and control

Again, the mP3 player wins; you can put whatever you like on it, whereas even a stellar band will have only a limited repertoire. And even though a good deejay has the variety, they’ll also pay more attention to crowd response and may not follow your instructions to the letter, even if you’ve told them to scrap the “Chicken Dance.”

Sound quality

You might have the world’s greatest mix on your mP3 player, but if your venue has only a boom box from 1984 as its sound system, nothing will make that better. Deejays and bands have the equipment to make the music sing.

Live vs. Memorex

Nothing can make or break a wedding’s vibe like a live band or deejay; when they’re good, they liven up an already great party, but they can also kill it if they’re not. To that end, couples should at least be familiar with the band or deejay they want to hire, if not audition them outright, before the big day.

SOURCES: Ben Mollin (219) 513-8858; The Knot (theknot.com)

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